Table 4.

Criteria for comparing firm performance.

S/L	Criteria	Description	Effect direction	UOM	References
Aspect 1: Stock performance
C11	Average Stock Return (AROR)	AROR is derived by taking average of the monthly returns in a given financial year. The return for the $t\mathrm{th}$ month for the $i\mathrm{th}$ stock is defined as: $R_{it}=ln\left(\frac{P_t}{P_{t-1}}\right)$ ($P_t$ is the closing price for the $t\mathrm{th}$ month)	Max	Value	[82], [83], [84], [85], [86], [87]
C12	Return on Net Worth (RONW)	The return of equity (ROE) or RONW is calculated as $\text{RONW}=\frac{\text{Net Income}}{\text{Shareholder}{\mathrm{s}}^{\prime }\text{Equity}}$ A higher RONW is an indicator of the better utilization of the shareholder’s capital for generating income.	Max	%
C13	Earnings per Share (EPS)	EPS is defined as the net profit divided by the number of outstanding common shares. A higher value of EPS gives an indication of higher earnings with respect to the share prices.	Max	Rs.
C14	Price to Book Value (P/B)	The P/B ratio captures the market perception and is expressed in terms of the stock price divided by the book value per share.	Max	Times
C15	Turnover	Indicator of liquidity of the stocks and is measured by dividing the number of shares traded and average number of common shares outstanding in a given period.	Max	Rs. Million
C16	Shares Traded	The total number of shares of a specific company (i.e., equity stock) traded in a given period.	Max	Nos.
C17	Yield	The amount of cash flow to the investor against the invested capital. Higher is the yield, better is the growth potential of the firm.	Max	%
C18	Alpha	It is expressed as the average return of the stock/portfolio in excess of what is predicted by the CAPM. Hence, higher is the value better is the ability of the stock to beat the benchmark.	Max	Value
C19	Beta	An indicator to capture the systematic risk. The value is calculated as $R_{it}=\alpha +{\beta }_i{R}_{mt}+e_{it}$ Where, $R_{mt}$ is the market return at time t and $\alpha$ and ${\beta }_i$ are the intercept and slope respectively. Using the ordinary least square method, the beta value is calculated as ${\beta }_i=\frac{Co\mathrm{var}(R_{it},R_{mt})}{Var\left(R_{mt}\right)}$	Min	Value
Aspect 2: Dividend payout capability
C21	Institutional Ownership (IO)	% ownership by Non-promoters	Maximize	%	[91], [92]
C22	Size of the Firm (S)	Natural Log of total assets	Maximize	Value	[93]
C23	Net Profit Margin (NPM)	(Net Profit/Revenue)*100%	Maximize	%	[94], [95]
C24	Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)	(PBIT/Capital Employed)*100%	Maximize	%	[97], [98]
C25	Sales Growth (SG)	Natural Log of (Sales at t/Sales at (t $-$ 1))	Maximize	Value	[96]
C26	Market Cap/Enterprise Value (MCEV)	Market capitalization/Enterprise Value	Maximize	Times	[97], [98]
C27	Net Cash Flow (from operating activities) (NCF)	Net amount of money being generated from regular business operations	Maximize	Rs. Million	[97], [98]
C28	Leverage (L)	Debt/PBITDA	Minimize	Times	[95]
Aspect 3: Sales and operational performance
C31	Sales Growth (SG)	Natural Log of (Sales at t/Sales at (t $-$ 1))	Max	Value	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C32	Return on Assets (ROA)	Net income/total asset	Max	%	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C33	Return on Working Capital (RWC)	((Op. Profit-tax)(current asset/total asset))/working capital	Max	Times	[110]
C34	Operating Profit Margin (OPM)	ratio of the earnings before income and taxes (i.e., a firm’s net operating income) to sales	Max	%	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C35	Asset Turnover Ratio (ATR)	Sales/total asset	Max	Times	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C36	Net cash flow from operating activities (NCF)	Net cash from operating activities.	Max	Rs. Million	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C37	Cash to current liability (CCL)	(cash $+$ cash equivalents $+$ marketable securities)/total current liabilities	Max	Times	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]
C38	Net Working Capital Days (NWCD)	Days account receivable $+$ days inventory - days account payable	Max	Days	[111], [112], [113], [114]
C39	Leverage (L)	Debt/PBITDA	Min	Times	[99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109]